Calgary's Ryan Yip leaves golf for coaching, fatherhoodBack to video

But after a few decades of giving it his all, the 2002 Alberta Amateur king retires from that chase — at least for now — to attend to more noble life pursuits.

One being fatherhood.

And another being to coach the next generation of PGA Tour pin-seekers.

“The ultimate goal was being a PGA Tour member, and obviously I was a little bit short of that,” Yip said. “But I played some PGA Tour events and had a decent finish (of 12-under-par 276 for T22) at the (2018) Canadian Open, and it’s kind of satisfying in a way.

“I know I still have a lot left. I know I can still qualify for U.S. Opens and PGA Championships and playing section events and being successful that way … and get myself ready to make that transition of one day maybe playing on the Champions Tour.”

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Oh … yes, the will to compete still burns deeply within him.

But these days, there are other ways to stoke the fire.

Yip, now 35, is back in Ohio as assistant golf coach of the NCAA’s Kent State Golden Flashes. That’s the university crew he once starred for before beginning his assault on a dream to play at the sport’s highest level.

“I love seeing people improve, and I love seeing people achieve their goals,” Yip said. “It’s been really fun for me helping these guys out and seeing them get better each and every day. I love golf stats and see where people need to get better. I love learning about the golf swing and how different coaches teach.

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“It’s been a nice little break learning about a different side of golf.”

That hiatus away from touring is something he felt he really needed, too.

For a couple of reasons …

Yip’s game just wasn’t living up to expectations, and his lost status after the 2019 season on the Korn Ferry Tour — a loop one cut below the PGA circuit — reflected that.

The moment he knew it was time to take a break? That came in the second round of last year’s Canadian Open after posting a healthy 68 in the opening twirl.

“First hole (of Round 2), I hit a great shot in there to like 10 feet (from the hole),” Yip said. “And it was the first time in my life that I yipped a putt really bad. And I couldn’t shake it. The first three or four greens I three-putted. I knew then, ‘It’s really over now. I need to get away from it. I need to make a transition.'”

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Plus he wanted to give his boy, Maverick — now 21 months old and seemingly born with the same golf fancy as Yip himself — a more stable home environment.

“It wasn’t like I wasn’t happy,” Yip said. “I just saw the lifestyle that my son and wife (Kyle) were living, and I didn’t want that for them.

“I wanted Maverick to have a home,” Yip continued. “When you’re travelling as much as I did, you don’t feel like you have a home. Home is your car or the airplane or a hotel room. You don’t feel like you really have a home-base. Having a young family with you on the tour, it’s a very tough life. Travelling with Maverick and my wife and our dogs, the tour life wasn’t really that fun and enjoyable anymore.

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“And I wanted to be there for him and see him grow up. I wanted to see him take his first step or say his first words. Tour life doesn’t really let you do that.

“So I started thinking about coaching.”

As luck would have it, along came a chance to join the staff at his alma mater.

Fellow Canadian Jon Mills, who starred just ahead of Yip at Kent State before going on to play on the PGA Tour in 2006 and ’08, became the Golden Flashes head coach last year, replacing longtime mainstay Herb Page, and Yip got the opportunity to join Mills.

It hasn’t, however, been the most seamless of starts to his coaching career, since the current coronavirus pandemic has made it quite the challenge to recruit the next generation of Kent State golfers.

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“Everything is done on Zoom or Facebook calls,” Yip said. “You can’t go on the road and recruit, so we can’t see them hit a golf ball in person.”

But he knows once school and its activities return to normal that he’ll have plenty to give back to the game.

The Bishop Carroll High School graduate knows first-hand the importance of understanding the sport from all angles … even if he didn’t when he was a young talent himself.

“Underachieving — that’s one thing that comes to mind,” said Yip, when asked to describe his chase to become a top-flight golf star in a word. “I didn’t let people in like I should have. I didn’t really start trusting coaches and people until later in my career.

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“Maybe if I’d have let them in when I was younger — like fresh out of college — I could’ve been more successful. Until I started understanding my own golf swing more and ball-flight laws at the highest level is when I started seeing a big improvement.”

So can the Bearspaw product translate that into more golf success — he’s played in one US Open and two Canadian Opens and has victories in both the Alberta Open and the then-Canadian Tour’s Jane Rogers Championship — now that he’s older?

“Actually I feel like my game is better than it’s ever been,” Yip said. “Golf’s that type of sport that I can still play competitively 15 years down the road and go for the Champions Tour. I just don’t want that tour schedule of 28 tournaments and grinding it out for income. Playing the schedule of 10 tournaments a year, that sounds great to me.”

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The plan would be a trip home for the Alberta Open and participation in the Canadian Open, plus a few Monday qualifiers here and there and perhaps giving US Open qualifying a shot.

But in the meantime, there are more pressing life pursuits at hand.

“When my son wakes up every morning, the first thing he does is grab a golf club and hits balls,” Yip said of lefty Maverick. “That’s really what the love of the game is. I can see it in his eyes.

“I’m going to help him any way I can to hopefully achieve his goals when it comes to him. I’ve got a lot of knowledge for him.

“His swing is actually pretty good,” Yip added with a chuckle. “He just mirrors what I do. It’s fun to watch.”

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